Eleven months after debut, vendor realizes goals

Samsung was searching high and low for ways to inject some much-needed energy into its channel business last year. While the company was a proverbial powerhouse in Asia, it didn't have the traction it desired in North America. That changed in January, when Samsung Electronics America, based in Irvine, Calif., dove headlong into the white-box market with a new partner program, which only now is starting to pay off for the vendor.

The IT recession is over, VARBusiness 500 executives say. Our exclusive quarterly survey of VARBusiness 500 solution-provider executives reveals that VARBusiness 500 executives are hiring, expecting big increases in fourth-quarter sales and putting their people to work at rates not seen since the end of the dot-com boom.

The current market seems like a proverbial gold mine for security solutions. With so many companies equipped with little more than a firewall, conventional wisdom says the recent rash of cyberattacks and viruses should spark a trend of increased IT spending for security technology.

NCR, founded as the National Cash Register Company in 1884, pioneered the mechanical cash register. Since that time, the company has gone through a number of transitions. Among its incarnations: It was acquired by AT&T in 1991 as a business-application and computer maker and then spun off five years later as a full IT solution provider.

Until last year, IBM's Tivoli division was suffering from a true identity crisis--a rather ironic situation given that the unit is, among other things, a leading provider of identity-management solutions. In addition to losing focus, Tivoli was mired in technical and support issues, and lacked a well-defined channel strategy.

Much of the technology fueling IBM's e-Business On Demand strategy is brewing within the company's Tivoli unit. Robert LeBlanc, Tivoli's general manager, talks about the technology in an interview with VARBusiness editors.

VARBusiness recently invited its 2003 Channel Executive of the Year Award recipient, Kevin Gilroy of Hewlett-Packard, to share his thoughts on the state of the channel. In this exclusive article, Gilroy, vice president and general manager of HP Americas commercial channels, takes a look at the changes the industry faces. Whether the reader is an HP partner or not, the analysis is worth studying.

Effective lead qualification requires a dedicated team

Have you ever had a big lead slip through the cracks because of poor customer follow-through? If so, you're not alone. Guest columnist Larry Dillon, founder and CEO of market-intelligence firm Wendover--which interviews some 4,500 technology decision-makers each quarter to determine what IT initiatives they expect to embark on in the next 365 days--offers advice on how to better mine your customers. One tip: Think long term.

New models are brighter and more lightweight

These days, one of the biggest hurdles for a traveling laptop user is having to cart around a digital projector. Fortunately, several vendors have begun offering quite capable models in smaller packages--in some cases, less than 4 pounds and with attractive carrying cases.

Integrators that don’t grasp SOAs risk their future

In the late 1990s, Jason Bloomberg had a nightmarish experience. While working in the IT department of a large bank, it took Bloomberg and his colleagues nothing short of a full year to enable the bank's customers to do exactly two things over the Web: conduct an account inquiry and transfer funds between accounts.

Vendor pledges new U.S. investment; top execs decry direct model

Acer executives, insisting that competitors erred by increasing direct sales to compete against Dell, plan to introduce a channel strategy that will increase its U.S. sales to $1.8 billion, up from this year's $330 million, by the end of 2006.

Define Your Core Value: Marketing

As Synnex begins trading as a public company and we get used to talking about the "big three" in distribution again, the question that must be answered over the long haul is what differentiates the three.

A host of vendors that are fighting tooth-and-nail for the hearts and minds of ISVs are missing the boat. No doubt ISVs are important. But the big kahuna is the thousands of VARs that are, in effect, morphing into that business model.

XChange Solution Provider 2015 is finally upon us and the timing couldn't be better. The premier channel event is happening March 1-3 in Dallas, bringing together 225 solution provider decision makers from across North America. CRN is at the event to provide news, analysis and a firsthand take from partners.